Rereading 1635: The Eastern Front by Eric Flint, part of his “Ring of Fire” series about a small West Virginia town that ends up in 1632 Germany in the midst of the 30 Years War. This isn’t one of his best, it’s something of a ‘transition’ book to get us to the Great Turkish Invasion of 1636 a little farther on, but it does tell a solid story well. Can’t recommend it unless you want to read a lot of previous work (minimum 3 books). But the series is still one of my go-to reads when I need to pull something off the bookcase.
Finished The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton, which I thought was interesting.
Now I’m reading The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese. It’s the second science fiction novel I’ve ever read in which a large sheep is important. (The other is Norstrilia, by Cordwainer Smith. That has a much larger sheep.)
Finished Merci Suarez Changes Gears, the 2019 Newbery Winner, a story of a Latina girl entering 6th grade at an elite middle school by virtue of her genius older brother’s scholarship, and her family and school struggles. It’s funny and warm and a genuinely good book, worthy of the award.
Scalzi, The Android’s Dream, sort of, if you’re collecting 
Ooo, that’s a good Scalzi.
Finished The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese, which I enjoyed very much. I was amused that the blurb on the front cover was from Hugh Howey, author of Wool, which my husband informs me is not about a giant sheep. (I know it’s SF.) I am also amused by the title of another of Kroese’s books: Out of the Soylent Planet.
Now I’m reading The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography, by Simon Singh.
Finished Indigo Slam, an Elvis Cole-Joe Pike noir by Robert Crais. A 15-year-old girl and her two younger siblings hire Cole and Pike to find their father, who’s been missing for 11 days. What the kids fail to mention is the whole family was placed in the Witness Protection program. Odd, but the book has two titles, as I’ve seen it also called Indigo Blues. But either way, the title is a reference to the color of a main ink used in counterfeiting. A good read.
Have started Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, by Edward Steers Jr. I believe it’s been highly recommended in these threads. Very good so far.
Still reading the interminable Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (iPod) and the much better A Quiet Life in the Country (Lady Hardcastle #1) (Kindle on phone), Pilgrimage: Europe’s Mot Inspiring Pilgrim Routes (hardback, bedroom), This is How You Lose the Time War (Kindle on laptop), and Martin Sheen and Emilio Estavez’s Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son (hardback, bathtub). Will return to The Physicians of Vilnoc (Kindle on phone) soon.
I finished Elmore Leonard’s Road Dogs, which was about average for his darkly comic crime novels, although it was fun to read more of Jack Foley (the easygoing bank robber from Out of Sight, played by George Clooney in the movie) and it got better towards the end.
I’ve now returned to Iain Banks’s sf novel The Player of Games, and am about two-thirds done. A master tactician takes part in a complicated alien game that has enormous political implications, including the potential rule of a barbarous interstellar empire.
H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, vols. I & II. Adaptation and artwork by Gou Tanabe.
I thought this was an outstanding adaptation. Presented in manga form and read right to left in English, it’s beautifully illustrated while faithfully recreating the original story’s slow-building eldritch sense of unspeakable horror. For samples of the art…
That looks great!
Wow, it does - thanks, Dropo. I’ve added it to my Amazon wishlist.
Finished The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography , by Simon Singh. It was excellent, one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, which is surprising, because I’m really not interested in the subject. (I read it because I bought it for my husband twenty years ago as a present I thought he’d enjoy and he hasn’t read it yet.)
Now I’m reading a book my husband has read (and recommended): The Face in the Frost, by John Bellairs.
Finally starting today on The Chill by Scott Carson. Carson is a pen name Michael Koryta has adopted for his supernatural tales, and I’m a big fan of Koryta, so I’m expecting good things! I’ve actually had this for a while as an ebook, but I just can’t enjoy reading books on my phone, ugh.
I have that one. I’m a John Bellairs fan from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back 
So is he.
He has awesome taste 
I’m working my way through the Hugo and Nebula nominees for 2020 and just finished The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This is my penultimate book on each list and also my favorite on each list. The prose is clear, the plot gallops along, the multiple storylines interweave adroitly. It’s hardly an original premise, but it’s a gorgeous take on an old idea. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Alix Harrow was another pseudonym for early Claire North.
Great fun, highly recommended!
And a few days ago I finished Gods of Jade and Shadow, another Nebula nominee.
Fairly standard magical adventure story based on Mayan mythology. The setting was great, but nothing in the prose or the characterization really grabbed me, and the plot twists were all, in broad strokes, predictable. Still, an enjoyable read.
Finished it. A pretty good sf novel, although not up to some of the rave reviews I’ve read of it. I figured out one twist before it was revealed and was pretty close on another.
I’ve now started Pale Kings and Princes, a Robert B. Parker crime novel. The smartass Boston private eye Spenser tries to find out who killed a reporter digging into the cocaine trade in a depressed western Massachusetts mill town.